Two nights ago, I came home announcing: “Tonight, I will watch TV!” After dinner, G and I plopped down on the couch to have a peek at the screen. I was giddy of excitement, as we never watch, besides 10 minutes of news/weather in the morning or Ella’s beloved Noggin fix.
We pressed the ‘power button’ and got instantly stuck on NBC’s The Singing Bee. This is handsdown the worst show I have ever seen. G and I looked at each other in complete disbelief. We gasped and said: “FREMPS!” We had to instantly text message BB, as she was the person introducing us to this fabulous term. I could not imagine life without ‘the fremps’ as part of my daily vocabulary. Please, feel free to add it to yours.
An oft-used phrase in my vocabulary thanks to Mr. Rochford. The term somehow completes the English language.
Aug 16th, 2007 / 10:49 am
Oh, I agree. I’ve been looking for this word since I was seven years old, watching Marty McFly make an idiot out of himself in Back To The Future.
Aug 16th, 2007 / 12:36 pm
The missing word, I have to find an italian equivalent
Aug 16th, 2007 / 12:45 pm
I seriously don’t know how I survived before I knew this word…
Aug 16th, 2007 / 12:48 pm
And here I was, after all this years, blind in my belief that the fremps, or as we Latin Americans have called it for so long, “vergüenza ajena” (or “embarrassment for another”, loosely translated) was a strictly Latin American feeling. Now, with the amount of fremp-inducing reality TV American producers have given birth to in the past five years, I cannot understand how this fantastic term hasn’t gone mainstream (yes, Cheaters TV, I’m looking at you).
Aug 18th, 2007 / 7:49 pm
Hahaha great to know that there is a word for this emotion!! If Curb Your Enthusiasm had a mission statement… that word would be it.
Apr 16th, 2009 / 3:14 pm
Fremdschämen im deutschen – sorry to post here in german.
Apr 16th, 2009 / 6:29 pm
Adopting this word immediately!
Jun 16th, 2011 / 2:56 pm
I’ve been calling this “fardo” for years – and it’s the reason I can’t go to karaoke.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fardo
Jun 16th, 2011 / 4:46 pm